John Sessoms wrote:
Electronic readers may displace books, but they have a long way to go
before they do so. They will require many generations of improvement
before they offer the utility or the pleasure of the printed page.
They'll *never* offer the pleasure of the printed page.
In a couple of generations they'll have the utility beat, though.
That dichotomy is the key. The automobile *didn't* replace the horse...
for some purposes. It did replace the horse for utilitarian purposes
(unless you're Amish).
The printed book will long survive as an aesthetic object. Electronic
books will replace it the way the horse replaced the automobile, for
day-to-day, practical, utilitarian purposes. Reading a novel, getting a
recipe, etc.
Things like the $1100 Somerset-cotton-paper, letterset book I bought
last year will always be in print form, though at increasing cost and
scarcity. The Cormack McCarthy novels, Coleridge poetry anthologies,
Triumph motorcycle service manuals, etc. that I bought last year will be
the things that go electronic, because it's the *content*, not the form,
I'm after.
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